QUEEN CITY, Mo. – Fresh off beating the No. 2 seed and red hot KC girls, the Milan girls looked to take the second step in defending their Class 2 District 6 title as they took on the Schuyler County Lady Rams. Milan fought SC until the very end, but just couldn’t put the ball in the hole enough times to win as the Lady Rams prevailed, 55-43.

With 3:15 to go in the third quarter Caley Sessions drilled a wide-open three and pulled SC even with the Ladycats at 29-29. Schuyler had been fighting to get back in the game since they fell down 7-2 to open the game. The Sessions’ three changed that.

SC went on to build a 45-36 lead with just over four minutes to play, but Hannah Sanders was not going to let her team quit or her MHS career come to an end without a fight. In the next 61 seconds, Sanders personally brought Milan back to within 45-41. However, 30 seconds later fellow senior Andra Sylvester would foul out, joining Bianca Caponetto, who was already on the bench after fouling out with six minutes to play, and Milan was just too undermanned to complete the comeback.

“I thought it was a hard fought victory and in the second half we really tried to keep the pressure on them. They had a chance to pull away, but we responded and I told the girls we have to play hard for 32 minutes, not just a half,” said Schuyler County head coach Thomas Kirkland.

Milan built their lead to as large as 25-16 in the second quarter. But just before halftime the Lady Rams started figuring out the Milan defense, and Milan had trouble holding on to the ball and scoring.

“We talked about where we wanted get our looks from. We started overloading and getting open looks on the backside, ball reversal was really key for us,” said Kirkland.

Milan was a straight man-to-man team for the majority of the regular season, but starting with their win against KC the Ladycats used a zone defense. It worked against the Lady Eagles and led to problems for SC for almost a half, but the Lady Rams figured things out in the second half.

“Basketball games come down to a series of possessions. In the third quarter we got into a hole and we couldn’t recover and were unable to get it done. They put Sessions at the high post, which was a good move and made us change what we had to do, but it came down to is that we didn’t execute,” said Milan head coach Jim Cox.

The possessions Cox was referring too were sandwiched around the big three by Sessions. Prior to the shot, Milan turned it over three straight trips, after the shot they went almost six minutes without scoring. Through the first four minutes of the fourth they had two points.

Page 2 of 2 - Sessions added 18 more points to go along with her big three ball for a total of 21.

“When I woke up this morning I was feeling good and when we all got into the locker room we were pumped and wanted payback from them beating us earlier. We knew we needed all the energy we had because we really wanted to play in the title game,” said Sessions.

Sanders closed out her Milan career with a game-high 26 points.

“You coach in this game long enough you get to coach some special individuals. But as far as talent goes she is in a special class, I have had the opportunity to coach couple guys who played briefly in the NBA and some division one athletes, and she is in that special category she really is,” said Cox.

This is Cox’s first year as Milan’s head coach. Prior to his arrival Andrea Dabney was the coach and got to see Sanders grow and help change a program.

“You don’t always come across a kid who has that great of a desire to become a great basketball player. There was a significant difference in our program when she became a freshman and took over our team. She is one of the most coachable kids I have ever had, and she is so talented. It was a pleasure for me this year because I just got to sit back and watch her. She is a great kid and I look forward to watching her play next year,” said Dabney, now Milan’s athletic director.